Trends Identified
Populism: From Backlash to Framing the Future
The rise of populism on both sides of the Atlantic is one of the defining social, political and economic phenomena of the current era.
2016
Shaping the future
European Strategy and Policy Analysis System (ESPAS)
The Rise and Implications of 'New Power'
People are waking up to their own power, coming together at a scale and speed unimaginable just a few years ago. New crowd-based and participatory models and values are transforming politics, business and other sectors of society.
2016
Shaping the future
European Strategy and Policy Analysis System (ESPAS)
The Future of Transportation
Transportation is humanity’s greatest lever for economic growth. More than any other technology, transport is the catalyst for big leaps in culture and ideas. And transport has itself been the engine for growth on a global scale. The Great Acceleration of the Rail Age enabled the transport of produce and people in volume, which in turn enabled urbanisation and the development of the mass market. Powered by coal, constructed of iron and steel, and financed on new capital markets, the railways themselves became a primary driver of the Industrial Revolution. That was then, this is now. The great question facing global leaders is whether our current transportation options can meet the inexorable and conflicting demands of growth and environmental stewardship. At current 2.7% annual rates of growth, mobility demand in the developed world will double in 25 years and rise sixteen- fold in a century. Existing modes have served us well, but offer only incremental improvements when a step- change in performance and energy efficiency is required.
2016
Shaping the future
European Strategy and Policy Analysis System (ESPAS)
Time for Sustainable Connectivity
Increasing connectivity is and will remain one of the main engines of globalisation as it keeps slashing the cost of distance. Hence a growing international integration of production systems and a constant Ricardo-Schumpeterian pressure for efficiencies. This is ne as long as these efficiency gains are, or perceived to be, fairly distributed. But, as we have seen in recent times, opening may turn to protectionist or isolationist discourse if gains are not equitably distributed.
2016
Shaping the future
European Strategy and Policy Analysis System (ESPAS)
Why Tech Innovators are Poised to Save the World
When trying to understand the societal impact of tech entrepreneurs on modern society, we need to look back, back to hippie culture and the San Francisco music revolution of the sixties, the birthplace of tech entrepreneurship in its current form. The common and strikingly new belief at that time was that we are responsible for the future of our planet, that an inclusive and networked society is more balanced and likely to be more sustainable; that race, gender and sexual orientation do not matter and need to be tolerated in whichever form. That mis ts and outlaws are admirable, if not role models.
2016
Shaping the future
European Strategy and Policy Analysis System (ESPAS)
Future of Digital Economy and Society
The exponential growth in digitisation and internet connectivity is creating signi cant new opportunities for business and society. What makes the changes so signi cant is the combination and leverage of multiple technologies: algorithms, sensors, data, cloud, artificial intelligence, machine learning and virtual reality working together that is new. These digital technologies can also combine with other technologies such as 3D printing, robotics, advanced materials, and energy storage, to have a multiplier effect on the way we live and work. The result is that digitisation is transforming what we do - from smart factories, to smart homes, to smart health - from the means of production to our personal well-being.
2016
Shaping the future
European Strategy and Policy Analysis System (ESPAS)
The Future of Security and Preparing for It: Why the Security Union is Needed
Terrorism and organised crime threatens our values and our way of life. Neither respects national borders. Indeed their business models thrive on the lack of coordination between states. The only way to defeat the terrorists and criminals is by working together effectively. In today’s world, security of one Member State is the security of all. National security remains the sole responsibility of Member States, but they cannot effectively address alone threats which are transnational.
2016
Shaping the future
European Strategy and Policy Analysis System (ESPAS)
How Crime and Terror Have Merged: European Jihadists and the New Crime-Terror Nexus
The conventional wisdom used to be that terrorists are middle-class and educated. In October 2016, the World Bank published a study according to which the majority of Islamic State fighters were better educated than their peers. But the picture among European jihadists is strikingly different. Far from being middle-class, they are at home in the ghettos of big cities like Paris and Brussels, and many of them have criminal pasts.
2016
Shaping the future
European Strategy and Policy Analysis System (ESPAS)
The Darker Side of New Technologies: How A New Global Security Order Has Arrived
Understanding the impact of new technologies on global security has never been more urgent – but responses are falling behind and there is no framework on the table to get back on track.
2016
Shaping the future
European Strategy and Policy Analysis System (ESPAS)
The New Uncertain Normal for Leadership in Politics, Public Service and Corporates. The Need to Think the Unthinkable.
The New Uncertain Normal for Leadership in Politics, Public Service and Corporates. The Need to Think the Unthinkable.
2016
Shaping the future
European Strategy and Policy Analysis System (ESPAS)